A fun trip to brag about

Let’s see… I’m surrounded by boxes and I have just a few short hours before my bedroom and the rest of my “things” will be packed up by strangers so of course I should be sitting at my computer right now blogging.
How else will I be able to brag about my fun trip to Alaska through the world-wide web?
First, if you’ve recently spent a week visiting your in-laws in Alaska with your brother-in-law and sister-in-law, don’t even think you had as much fun as we did. Trust me on this one.
We went deep sea fishing, whale watching, hiking, kayaking, shopping, and lots and lots of sight-seeing. We saw whales, sea lions, seals, eagles, bears—a little black bear cub even crossed our path while hiking around Mendenhall glacier. This was an Alaskan adventure for crying out loud! We had sunny days, ate lots of fresh from the ocean fish, and laughed a lot--a much needed break.
Thanks to my mom for watching the kids for 8 whole days. That’s a lot of Claire time, if you know what I mean.
Lauren turned 13 on Sunday and The Russells and The Russells threw us a nice going-away open house. More to come....
Right now, I guess I'm going to be off-line for a little while. We leave Friday (maybe) for our new home.

Our trip to Alaska

Bittersweet

Six month old Zachary--one of my favorite pictures

Today has been a tough one. It was terrible and wonderful. Bittersweet. That's a great word, I've been using it a lot lately. Our move to Dallas is bittersweet. Our new home is officially ours--we got home from Dallas today. Before we boarded the plane, we recieved a call from our realtor letting us know of an offer on our Midland home. We countered and flew home. As soon as we landed, before we exited the plane, we recieved the news that our offer was accepted. An answer to many, many prayers. I think it was no coincidence that it happened on this day. My emotions have taken over.

On this day, also a Wednesday--six months ago, our lives changed forever. I sometimes wonder what I would have done differently on that day if I had known it was the last I would have with my Zachary in mortality. I hope I kissed and hugged and held him enough. I wish I could remember. Tonight we took the kids to visit Zach's grave. The drive home was silent. It reminded me of our drive home from the hospital six months prior, at about the same time. A painful, empty silence.

The joy we feel about our new home in Keller, and now selling our Midland home, is tempered by our sorrow today. We are grateful, relieved, sad, and overwhelmed. It is Bittersweet.

The 13th of each month is always bittersweet. It is the anniversary of Zachary's birth as well as his death. What a happy day it was 20 months ago. A perfect little baby boy joined our family forever.

There is comfort in knowing I will hold him again. I will have him back in my arms and my heart will be healed. What a wonderful day that will be.

Just one hour

I had to take a picture of this, just so Dave would believe it. This perfectly represents my life right now. As most of you know, our house is back on the market. That's right, what goes around comes around and all that. 10 days after we "sold" our house, the buyers backed out and so we re-listed it. This time around it hasn't been so easy. It's been very slow and, I'll say it...depressing. I've been in a state of constant anxiety in my attempts of keeping a perfectly spotless house (and most of you know what an impossible feat that is for me), and alternately waiting for the phone to ring.

A couple days ago, a realtor called to bring someone over so I did my mad crazy dash of cleaning/hiding/organizing/yelling at kids, etc. We left the house for a couple of hours and then came home to a sparkling clean, yet still for sale home. An hour later, yes 1 hour, 60 minutes, una hora, une heure, ...later I went in to check on Claire and this is what I found.

I wish I had a "before" picture to emphasize the transformation. This completely sums up my life these days. If I had a better camera lens, you would be able to see the little containers full of bugs that she had collected as her pets and the eggs (from the fridge) that she attempted to keep warm and hatch. No wonder what that funny smell was from under her bed--that no wallflower or room spray could mask.

Also included in that hour was enough time to put on a leotard and fall asleep.

P.S. I really do love Claire

P.S.S. Does anyone want to buy this house???